We’ve had some great discussions the past few days.  If you are still uncertain about a topic, ask Stacie.  She keeps cranking them out then disowning them. 

We decided to finish the book by Tuesday, which seems reasonable.  Don’t rush if you’re feeling behind. Enjoy the book, read a bit every day, and you’ll be fine.

Here again are the board clips (less jumbled this time):

Sherrie presented her idea for synthesizing Ellison’s short story, MLK’s “Letter…,” the novel, and Montaigne’s quotation on conformity.  (Keep us updated!)

The question I put before the class was:  Are they happy?  If so, why?  If not, does it matter?  We went through a list of things in our lives that upset us, then crossed out those that are eliminated in the BNW.  The next question was why is Bernard unhappy initially, and what is the source of Hemholtz’s discontentedness?

If you come up with an idea, want to offer one to the class, have a question, or a general observation, comment below for the good of all.

Check this out:  Slate.com’s editors have annotated Barack Obama’s acceptance speech from the Democratic National Convention.

Now, they focus more on allusions and nods to previous speeches and events than the actual rhetoric, but it is an interesting read.

Major bonus for anyone who chooses to annotate all or part of the speech.  We’ll look at McCain’s speech from the GOP Convention after September 4th.

This is a test of a new blog post publisher I’m trying.  If it looks weird, I’ll go back to the old one.

An article on oration from The New Republic.

We had a great discussion today, guys!  Here are my notes.  The screencast thing didn’t work, but here is a copy of my notes, jumbled for your interpretative pleasure:

(Click on the pics to make them printable/legible.  Well, larger, anyway.)

at Barnes and Noble on 41st if you don’t already have a copy.  We will begin discussing the book tomorrow.